Hendrawan keeps faith in his erratic charges
Posted by valsus on October 29, 2009
ODENSE: It must be a tough task trying to lift a group of floaters in the national team but singles coach Hendrawan is not demoralised even though he had lived with a string of disappointing results.
At the Denmark Open last week, Mohd Hafiz Hashim was on the verge of a victory at 16-5 in the rubber game against Marc Zwiebler of Germany but in a snap of the fingers, he was shown the exit, losing the second-round match 21-16, 17-21, 18-21.
None of Hendrawan’s three shuttlers from the national back-up squad – Liew Daren, Chong Wei Feng and Mohd Arif Abdul Latif – competed in the Super Series event but they too are still struggling to make a breakthrough, even in lower level tournaments.
Hendrawan is just into four months of work in Malaysia and he is not giving up easily.
“This was Hafiz’s first big tournament since I took charge of him and I do not want to be too quick to make a conclusion. I will assess the game with him after the France Open,” said the former world champion from Indonesia.
The France Open beginning today in Paris is even tougher for Hafiz with the return of the top Chinese players, Lin Dan, Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai, after skipping the Denmark Open.
Hafiz opens against Hong Kong’s Ng Wei and has in his path in the next round former world and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia.
Hendrawan said that he would remain optimistic on the future of his charges.
“Hafiz works hard and is dejected when he is beaten. At least, the fire is back in him,” he said.
“I did not send any back-up shuttlers to Denmark and France because they are not ready for the big stage yet. But I think they are showing better attitude in training.
“I will continue to give my support to make them better players.”
